


The Man in Black

by yuletide_archivist



Category: Dragonlance - Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-12-24
Updated: 2007-12-24
Packaged: 2018-01-25 07:24:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1638761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuletide_archivist/pseuds/yuletide_archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      The title was inspired by a Johnny Cash song by the same name.<p>Written for pesha</p>
    </blockquote>





	The Man in Black

**Author's Note:**

> The title was inspired by a Johnny Cash song by the same name.
> 
> Written for pesha

 

 

Disclaimer: Dragonlance series is the original creation of Margaret Weis, Tracy Hickman, and TSR books, as are the characters of Raistlin and Tanis; they are not mine. 

Tanis Half-Elven had always had trouble expressing his feelings, but when it came to leading his friends that was much easier then dealing with the churning mix of emotions that roiled around inside of him. 

Speaking of those bottled up emotions Tanis had to wonder and perhaps even envy the studied control and rigid discipline that the man in the feathery soft robes wears around him like Sturm's armor. And it is a kind of armor, even the off-hand yet calculated pointed cruelty that Raistlin indulges in from time to time.

Tanis does not want to understand the source of that pain nor does he wish to maintain eye contact for too long, for no sooner does Raistlin catch you watching him out of the corner of his eye but that finely shaped head will whip around and catch you in that blazing hour-glassed golden gaze.

It is mesmerizing and eerie at one and the same time. Tanis is not often given to idle speculation, but he finds that he is seeking out the other man's advice more and more often of late. 

The others remain huddled around the campfire, and if Tas's lovingly collected and preserved maps are to believed the group is only a matter of days hard walking outside of reaching their destination of Pax Tsaroth. 

It was fortunate that they had any guide at all, to Tanis' way of thinking, for in all his years and travel experience, he had to finally through up his hands as if to say enough, and admit that he, at least, was hopelessly lost.

Raistlin got up from his position by the fire, wrapping his black robes around his thin body, irritably brushing aside his twin brother's Caramon's hand outstretched to help him. The pain that shows in both twin's face is there, for those with eyes to see, and they do.

Speaking of the smiles and the looks in their eyes, I too, wonder how much they think about the private talks that I have had with Raistlin ever since the first day we embarked on this 'quest' if that's what they call it. Frankly, I just don't care anymore.

Raistlin is clearly intelligent, smarter than I am at any rate, and at times he has taken no pains to let us all know that he considers us beneath him, that is smarter, better, and more powerful than the lot of us combined. Which I have little doubt of that, his trials at the Tower of High Socerery left his body damaged in ways that I cannot even begin to imagine. 

However that invisible armor that I mentioned earlier, and the aura of power that constantly surrounds him like the afterglow of intense heat on a mud-baked flat is quite plain.

I decided then and there that I did not much care what they said or thought about our talks, and I got up from own place at the fire, declining the sadly deflated wineskin that Flint offered up to me. 

"We need to talk," I offered to the magic-user.

"It does appear that way," the other replied with a deceptively causal shrug. In the back of his mind Raistlin wondered if he had become too attached to the associations and friendships of his youth prior to his taking and passing the dread Test in the Tower of High Sorcery in the Forest of Wayreth. 

It is a rite of passage of sorts for magic users on the continent of Krynn, and only a bare handful actually would wish to risk body and soul for the power, prestige at the price that it demanded. Yet, he had. It was something that he had always wanted, always strived for, but at what cost? 

No one really understood and he had, grudgingly or not, come to accept that. Acceptance had not come easily and that was something that he was often at odds with, but it would pass; whenever these moods came upon him; they always did.

Now here was Half-Elven the acknowledged or perhaps in the other's mind, unacknowledged leader of their small group constantly seeking him out for advice. There was some kind of poetic justice in that,' Raistlin thought allowing a small wry smile to pass his lips. "Do continue," he said aloud.

"I don't want this," Tanis fumbled and shuffled his booted feet on the hard packed ground, stirring up a small puffball of fallen brown leaves, dirt, and grass, and small pebbles. "Damn it! That came out all wrong. It's just that it's come to my attention that we might have a problem."

"That we go aside to discuss possible routes, things pertaining to our mutual journey," Raistlin replied, "it is no secret that need be kept from the others, however, my dear brother may be somewhat jealous."

"If he is," Tanis shrugged. "That's between him and you."

"I'd offer you a reassuring but ultimately useless platitude about how everything will all work out in the end," the other sighed and then added, seeing the pain of doubt, duty and mingled care and hurt in the grass-green almond-shaped eyes shadowed by the shoulder-length red hair, and then added. "However, Tanis, let us not delude ourselves what we both know to be true." 

"You're telling me that it will get much harder before it gets easier, is that it?" Tanis sighed and quit staring at the ground and made and held eye contact with the black-robed magic-user. 

"Were we chosen for this task, do you think? Tanis asked after a moment's awkward silence had passed. "Or is it all just random chance?"

Raistlin did not at once answer the question as he reached up to pull his the hood of his traveling cloak lower over his eyes before he finally answered. "I think rather, that the question we need to ask ourselves, is not why we were chosen?"

"Then what?" Tanis asked in mingled curiosity and frustration.

"A better question would be, who chose us?"

 


End file.
